Intimate partner violence and psychotic experiences in four U.S. cities

A large body of research has established a relationship between trauma exposure, particularly during childhood, and psychotic experiences. Yet, there remains a general lack of research on adult trauma exposure, including intimate partner violence (IPV), as a risk factor for psychotic experiences. The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between IPV and psychotic experiences in U.S. cities.

Data were collected from 1615 participants in four U.S. cities. Psychotic experiences were assessed through the World Health Organization (WHO) Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) psychosis screen along with adapted IPV measures.

Findings revealed that experiencing at least one form of IPV was significantly associated with each of the four psychotic experiences assessed for both men and women. The strongest associations were found for threatening and sexual IPV; physical IPV was not significantly associated with psychotic experiences. Exposure to IPV was associated with more than a tripling of the odds of reporting at least one psychotic experience as opposed to none. Among those exposed to IPV there was between three- to five times the odds of reporting specific subtypes of psychotic experiences.

The results expand on prior findings linking psychotic experiences and childhood trauma exposure to include intimate adult exposures. Emotional and sexual IPV appear to be associated with elevated risk for psychotic experiences in adulthood. Even though IPV is more commonly reported by women in the U.S., such victimization appears to have similar associations with psychotic experiences regardless of gender.